ReplaceTheCaps - We like to fix retro electronics

Recently I got this Sony Discman D-88 from eBay that doesn't work. It came from the UK and I won the auction for 180 pounds. The description of the item said:

Up for sale is a SONY DISCMAN D-88 This comes in good condition with its carry case and battery case, but does not come with a power supply or headphones. It has been tested with a 9V power supply and a pair of headphones – while the screen does come on, the disc spins and the Discman shows the track number of the disc, only a crackling sound can be heard using headphones as the volume is adjusted.
Sold as spares or repairs - no returns on this item.

I received and tested it and, as the description stated, it doesn't output any sound. I put on a CD, turn it on and the disc starts spinning. The display shows 00 and the CD keeps spinning but nothing happens.
So, first things first, I took it apart to see if I could see something wrong.
Very easy to take the back cover off. Just 4 screws plus the small plastic piece, with 2 screws, that is used to move the motor for playing normal discs or mini discs, you need to take it out also, if not the back cover won't come out.
And I was happy to see that nobody had been there before, everything looked unmodified. That is always good news.

I inspected this part of the PCB but I couldn't see any bad components or connections, everything looked very good.
Another two screws are holding this PCB to the chassis.
I also desoldered that top paper shield from the board to be able to work more comfortably.
There are also a couple of flex cables connected to the board that I needed to disconnect in order to be able to turn the PCB around.

This one is on the top part and it just slides out of the connector:
Then this other one is connected at the bottom of the board, but it is easy to access and disconnect, just need to lift the connector tab and pull the cable out:
Again, I couldn't see anything clearly wrong with the components on this side of the PCB so I did what I do best and always helps on these old devices: replace the capacitors

I always like to make a quick draw of the position of the capacitors on the board so I don't mess it up if I desolder them and then I don't know which one goes where.
The electrolytic caps on this board are very short and I don't have such short ones so I just used the "tall" ones I have.
Not looking great but it'll allow me to desolder them easily, if I need to, during this "debugging" phase.

I tested the Discman with the new capacitors but the issue is still there

I kept working on this and finally found the solution
The reason why the laser head was not moving is that the middle gear, between the motor and the laser-head rod gear, was stuck.

I was able to take it out with tweezers. It has a small clip holding the gear so I needed to take that off first and then I took the gear out, I didn't need to disassemble anything else which was a relief.
Then I just cleaned it with some isopropyl alcohol. It had some junk on it, from dry grease I suppose.
I put it back, no clip and no new grease, just to test. And I was so happy to see the laser moving and hear some sound when I played a CD

Now, the new capacitors I soldered were too big as I said before, but I was hoping I could, somehow, fit them, by bending them or something... that was not the case . So I bought new ones of the right size (5mm height) and some lithium grease to lubricate the gears.
I put it back together and played some music on it. Sadly there is another small issue which is that the display is quite dim on the bottom half. It was a bit annoying because the seller didn't say anything about it... but that is something I can live with, for now at least...

Hi, TheCapfather. I bought a D88, but it not on, not play, it do not anything. Do you thing that are the caps?. Give me a guide for check, and know what happen whit it. Do you have a Service manual?. Thanks and best regards.

Baut95 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 12:57 pm Hi, TheCapfather. I bought a D88, but it not on, not play, it do not anything. Do you thing that are the caps?. Give me a guide for check, and know what happen whit it. Do you have a Service manual?. Thanks and best regards.

Hello!!

I recommend you create a new post on the Audio devices section so we can try to troubleshot your issue together

I've also uploaded the service manual, you can find it here